The 99 delegates Donald Trump won in Florida are bound to vote for him on the initial three rounds of balloting in Cleveland.
That makes Florida’s delegates to the Republican convention all the more valuable if the mid-July gathering is contested because either Trump, the clear front-runner, or Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas, fail to garner 1,237 delegates before the primary season concludes. Trump’s delegate lead over Cruz stands at 736 to 463.
Most state and territorial Republican parties bind their delegates to the winner of their primary or caucus on the first ballot taken on the convention floor, a few do so on the first two, after which they are free agents. Florida binds on the first three, a rule that extends to the state GOP’s three so-called super delegates.
“This how our rules were laid out,” Florida GOP Chairman Blaise Ingoglia said Tuesday, in an interview with the Washington Examiner.
The individual delegates are not required to be loyal to Trump, and will be chosen over the next several weeks in a series of elections and other processes. Per state party rules, the active presidential campaigns were invited to submit a suggested list of prospective delegates.
So far, only the Trump campaign has done so, Florida GOP officials confirmed. That doesn’t mean Cruz isn’t active behind the scenes. The Texan has outflanked Trump in delegate elections in multiple states.
Ingoglia said that the Trump campaign has been in regular contact with the state party. The Cruz campaign has reached out to a lesser extent, he said. As far as Ohio Gov. John Kasich’s campaign, Ingoglia described the state party’s communications with the underdog Ohioan as “radio silence.” Kasich has won only 143 delegates thus far.
Trump won the March 15 Florida primary, defeating home-state Sen. Marco Rubio 45.7 percent to 27 percent. That entitled the New York celebrity businessman to all 99 delegates, under the winner-take-all rules of the primary. But that wasn’t the end of the state GOP’s complicated process for selecting delegates.
Of the 99 delegates, three include the state chairman (Ingoglia,) as well as the Republican National Committee man and RNC committee woman, who happens to be RNC co-chairman Sharon Day. In many states, the chairman and national committee members are unbound, even on first ballot. Another 15 delegates “at large” delegates will be largely determined by Ingoglia, approved by the state GOP executive committee from a list he submits.
The remainder, and vast majority, will be selected, three each, from each congressional district. Voting on them will be the county chairman and state party committeeman and committee woman from each county covered by a particular congressional district. In some cases, that means delegates will be chosen by less than a handful of party officials. In others, particularly in congressional districts, up in the panhandle, the selection could be in the hands of dozens of party officials.
So, would Ingoglia and his fellow delegates be willing to exercise their power and vote for a candidate other than Trump on the floor of a contested convention, should a fourth ballot be held?
“We’re going to cross that bridge when we come to it,” he said.
